Visitation will be Thursday, April 19, 2018 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Snow’s Memorial Chapel, Cherry Street, Macon. Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Friday, April 20, 2018 at Riverside United Methodist Church with the Rev. Chip Strickland, Rev. Steve Waldorf and Rev. John Irwin. Burial will be at Rose Hill Cemetery following the service.
Born June 29, 1925, in Rome, Georgia, he moved to Macon and graduated from Lanier High School and then from Mercer University, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha Fraternity. George was a longtime teacher of the Woodruff Bible Class at Riverside United Methodist Church and served on the church board of trustees. He and his family were members of Riverside from its earliest days in the chapel of the Methodist Home. In 2002 George was voted an honorary life member of the board at Riverside.
He was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1972 and was one of seven Republicans in the 56-member Senate. He served for two years.
He served as an officer in the U.S. Army in the Philippines in World War II and left the service as a captain. He later was vice commander of the Military Order of the World Wars. After holding management positions with Crawford & Company, he owned the Pontiac dealership in Moultrie, Ga., then returned to Macon as vice president for claims at Georgia Farm Bureau Insurance. He attended John Marshall Law School, was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1960, and opened a law practice in Macon in 1968. He was a member of the Georgia Bar and the Macon Bar Association for more than 50 years. He was a longtime active member of the Macon Lions Club (as well as Lions in Moultrie) and served a term as president of the Georgia Lighthouse for the Blind. George served on the board of directors of the Macon Hospital Authority and the board of trustees of the Washington Memorial Library. After his retirement from law practice, he was executive director of the MedCen Foundation.
George was the son of Patty Quarles and Max Neil Skene. His sister, Martha Jo Horton, predeceased him. On Nov. 5, 1949, he married the former Louise Pate, who predeceased him on August 25, 2004. They had four children, three of whom survive him: Neil (Madelyn) of Tallahassee, Florida; Pate (Beth) of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Patricia Lynn of Bolingbroke, Georgia; and Mary, who predeceased him in 2015. They have six grandchildren: Mary Elizabeth Neville, William J. “Trey” Neville III (Elise), Christopher Neil Skene, Jesse A.G. Skene, Jennifer Louise Skene, and Katherine Marie Skene. Other survivors are great-grandchildren Emmerson Pape and Haynes Pape, nephew Russell W. Hatfield Jr., and nieces Trisha Horton Lewis and Maxine Forester. In 2007 George married Marilyn Lisenby, who predeceased him.
Pallbearers are grandsons Trey, Chris and Jesse, nephew Russ, and great-grandson Haynes.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Riverside United Methodist Church, 735 Pierce Ave., Macon, GA 31204, to PACE Center for Girls headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, which is planning a new center in Macon, or the USO, P.O. Box 96860, Washington, DC 20077-7666 or USO.org.
Visit www.snowsmemorialchapel.com to express condolences.
Snow’s Memorial Chapel, Cherry St. has charge of the arrangements.
